day one hundred and fifty four

This post should start with some fantastic news for my readers - my car sold! Thank God! I was seriously about to run out of moolah! It's funny, because I was just about to give up on this adventure and apply for work, but then *boom* car sold and now can finish out the year.

Earlier this month I attended the official part of a Kenyan funeral. I say the "official" part because there's like three days prior to the ceremony which involves a huge dance party, lots of wailing and praying and food. However as I didn't know the guy I felt awkward just turning up at his house and partying. I went along to the ceremony as a sign of respect for Mama J as this guy was a good friend of hers. 

Anyway, this guy was HUGE - both physically and socially. Whilst he might have died because of his physical size, his social prowess means that he lives on in the community. I took some photos with my phone (as I felt weird whipping out my camera at a funeral) to share with you some of this experience...

The funeral is being held at a local high school on their playing grounds.
There are about 1000 people here...

Yeah, that's a coffin there...

The main tent - all the church ladies are dressed in white

Yes, that is a programme for the funeral...

When the widow came to speak, all the church ladies came and surrounded her...

I ended up leaving after three hours of speeches - just after the widow finished giving her talk but before the politicians started abusing the microphone... seriously Kenya, is a funeral the time to give a speech about how corrupt your opposition is?

So there you go, one cultural experience for you. I've been invited to a wedding later next month so will let you know all about that!

day one hundred and fourty six

Pole sana that I've been so quiet these past two weeks; have been sick with my stomach "driving" like crazy. Exciting things have happened and I actually have things to write about, so I'll be splitting the stories over a few days. First let's start with the FSD mid-term trip to Lake Naivasha.

As copied from wikipedia - Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake in Kenya outside of the town Naivasha, in Nakuru County, west of Nairobi. It is a part of the Great Rift Valley. The name is derived from the local Maasai word nai'posha meaning "rough water" because of the sudden storms that arise. Lake Naivasha is at the highest elevation of the Kenyan Rift Valley at 1,884 metres, has a surface area of 139km sq and a further 64 sq km of swamplands. The lake has an average depth of 6m, with the deepest area at Crescent Island being of 30m. The town of Naivasha lies on the north-east edge of the lake.

Now that you know all about Lake Naivasha (karibu), let me tell you about my weekend. It started with us gathering at the FSD office at 7am for a supposed 7am departure... however one of the interns was late, arriving at 8am with no real excuse or apologies. From there we started our road trip to Naivasha, picking up other interns along the way. First stop was the on the side of the road so we could take touristy photos at the Equator sign.

Straddling the equator - one foot northern hemisphere, one foot southern hemisphere

Lunch was rather non-event. The next stop worth mentioning was at this swanky new shopping mall near the town of Naivasha - seriously wazungu headquarters. I was just excited to find a hot water bottle that wasn't going to cost me an arm and a leg... This little hottie cost only 400Ksh rather than the 1500Ksh ones I found in Kakamega (remember $1AUD buys approx 70Ksh after bank fees).

We arrived at our accommodation at around 6pm, just in time to watch the sunset. Then we headed to the restaurant for some much anticipated mzungu food! Friday night I shared with R and P and we had a chicken caesar salad, a pizza and nachos... so much yummy cheese! I think that's what I miss most here in Kenya (definitely) cheese! And butter (one pat of butter costs almost 600Ksh!).

no filter, no edits... breathtaking

The next day breakfast was something from my mzungu food craving dreams - French toast with bacon and maple syrup. For some reason they decided to add icing sugar also, but despite the sugar overload it tasted fantastic. The coffee was great also - actual Kenyan coffee (normally at home here I drink instant).

From there we went to Crater Lake for an AMAZING walking safari - seriously incredible! There were monkeys, zebras, twigas (giraffes), antelope, buffaloes, butterflies, gazelles, pumbas (warthogs) and one flamingo... WOW! Our tour guide was an actual hipster - yes, they exist here in Kenya! But he was super helpful in pointing out the animals and answered all our stupid questions. My fancy camera got a good workout Hope you enjoy the pics.

teehee - it is peeing

look over there! so close!!!

hello monkey!

G'day twiga!

the solitary flamingo

After that we were treated to an incredible buffet at a lakeside resort, with lots of salad (yet another thing I miss). Then we dragged our sleepy selves back to our accommodation, where I enjoyed my new issue of National Geographic (hehe, I get it posted to me here).

At 5pm we boarded a boat on Lake Naivasha to go and see the hippos! So many of them! They were all under water so I couldn't see just how huge they are - did you know that most of the food they eat is indigestible which creates gases in their gut which they use to keep afloat? Yep, our super awesome tour guide taught us that. If that fact isn't true then I'm totally gullible but sijali. We also saw some freaking huge pelicans.

taken with my zoom lens... safely far away!

hello there hippos!

so huge!

Then back to the hotel for some more incredible mzungu food - this time spaghetti bolognase. Mmmmm. YUM! Then after that a campfire with 'smores which R brought over from the States and some yummy sangria. Super chilled evening.

The next morning we were up early, breakfasted and off. Yet another stop at the fancy shopping mall allowed for the purchase of tasty coffee at the Java House then a very long, treacherous journey back to Kakamega. I say treacherous because the road from Nakuru to Kakamega is a single-lane, with drivers taking ridiculous chances to overtake the many trucks. Seriously, this is probably Kenya's most important and busiest thoroughfare and it's only ONE LANE?! If I were a resident I'd start picketing my local politician to do something about it.

Despite the complaining of the other wazungus on the trip, and the start of my being sick, my vodka bottle smashing in my bag, and me having left my spending monies at home, it was a great weekend away, one desperately needed by myself.

My next trip is to Addis Ababa next month in order to renew my Kenyan visa. Please pray my car sells, as without it I will have no monies very shortly. But I trust that my God is Jehovah Jireh - the God who provides. 

day one hundred and twenty six

This past weekend saw me cross the four month mark of living in Kenya... part of me is counting down the days until this is all over, the other part can't believe this is going so fast! I feel like I'm starting to settle in, I've got local friends and favourite shops and enough Swahili vocabulary to tell people to use their urine to go away... mwah ha ha ha. Now to push on, continue with the good work and fight the good fight.

My ever amazing Mum sent me another parcel of Aussie goodies, which makes me feel loved as I love getting presents and knowing that someone is thinking about me even if I live three plane flights away. 

The thing I was most excited about receiving was a block of Cadbury chocolate with Vegemite. Sure I'm like really slow to the game here, but hey better late than never right? (although some of you might argue never for this)

Earlier in the year I shared the glorious taste of Vegemite with my Kenyan workmates and family... yeah they hated it. Which is perfectly fine for me, as it means I don't feel guilty not sharing it with everyone. So having remembered that taste I gave them a piece of the Cadbury special and documented their facial expressions...

The first victim was Lucy, and she wasn't entirely sure about it.

Pollyne didn't seem to understand that I wanted a response to the taste of this incredible delicacy, but instead posed beautifully for the photo.

Rachael hated it. Her facial expression is absolutely brilliant!

Lydia thought it was okay...

...but Masinde hated it and proceeded to argue with me about Cadbury being a Kenyan brand (pfft).

Sarafina has an Aussie sister-in-law so I was happy to see her licking her fingers and enjoying it.

Baby Tashley hated it so much she spat it out.

Mama J seemed to like it but mostly was laughing at Baby Tashley.

Nicole just likes anything with sugar it in.

Harry thought it was interesting enough to read the package.

As for me... I wasn't too sure about it. Honestly I was slightly disappointed that it didn't taste terrible - I wanted it to be awful and shocking. You could only slightly taste the Vegemite, otherwise it was just a really sticky caramel chocolate. Despite this it was super delicious to eat Aussie Cadbury again, nothing really tastes the same.

My mum also sent me one packet of BBQ Shapes, because last time she sent me five and I ate them all in one go, which defeats the purpose of sending mini-packets rather than a big box. I thought I would be generous and also share this packet of awesome with Harry, who didn't like them...

…. he loved them! I told him if he liked those he'll love Pizza Shapes.

So there you go, overall people seemed to not hate it. As for the other goodies in the package, they are for me to devour and share only with the special people. Sorry everyone else.

Just a quick update on the dooming visa deadline and required trip to Addis Ababa... my car still hasn't sold but I have received some donations (thank you so much!). If you can spare even just $20 that'd help me get to Addis Ababa for the few days I need in order to return to Kenya and get a new visa. You can send it through paypal (theanita1 at gmail dot com) or to my Australian bank account (email me for numbers). Thanks!